A Seasonal Thanksgiving: Made in Minnesota
Thanksgiving, the time to “give thanks”, to celebrate the end of the growing season and showcase the harvest. It really should be that simple, get rid of the gourmet food magazine and take inventory of what is local.
While speaking to my BFF Klone, trying to explain this post, it occurred to me that I’m not writing a cookbook, or even a recipe blog. I’m promoting a lifestyle. Although I may include recipes that are a favorite, I’m more about how to take what you have and simply prepare it. For inspiration, I use recipes on the web, or in my cookbook library, and adjust them to suit what I have on-hand.
The Saturday before Thanksgiving, I spent my morning gathering local ingredients, my first stop was Iron Shoe Farm to pick up local products; Carla at Iron Shoe Farm has a large supply of locally sourced products. She procured some of my ingredients for Thanksgiving; turkey from Ferndale Market, Dairy from Autumnwood Farms, coffee from Folly Coffee, and hydroponic greens from Frisk Fra Boksen.
I also stumbled onto another farm, Thompson Family Farm MN that was open, they had pie pumpkins, parsnips, greens, radish, onions, and apples. I am set to create our family Thanksgiving!
I came home and laid out all of the products I had available to create our meal. Last week I made my first ever Goat Feta, (more to come about that!) so excited to try that on our salad. My pantry pickled items will be a great starter as will the last of the season radish bunch.
Here is the list of all the local products I used, along with The Mercantile products:
| Alpha and Omega Farm |
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| Ferndale Market | Turkey | |
| Thompson Family Farm MN | Radish, pie pumpkin, mixed greens, beets, apples, parsnips | |
| Hayes Family Farm | Red skinned potatoes | |
| Rice Creek Farm | Walnuts | |
| Compost Guy | Leeks | |
| Autumnwoods Farms | Dairy | |
| Hope butter | Butter | |
| Strictly Mushrooms | Shitake mushrooms | |
| Sunrise Flour Mill | All-purpose flour | |
| Doubting Thomas Farms | Oats | |
| Smude Sunflower Oil | Sunflower oil | |
| The Mercantile | Salt, pepper, sugar, spices, Wisconsin Cranberries |
I spent my weekend before the big day doing as much prep as possible to make Thanksgiving easy and enjoyable. Sunday I prepped: cranberry sauce, fried leeks, cream and roux base for casserole, sourdough bread, apple pie crumble, roast pumpkin & beets, pie crust, herb vinaigrette, roasted walnuts.
This made for a very relaxing Thanksgiving. I finished and bake the pies, spice rub and smoked the turkey, built the salad, assemble the green bean casserole, cook and mash the potatoes & parsnips, warm the bread, whip the cream and open the wine! What a day!
I’m thankful for each of the farmers, hands and tireless hard work to provide such amazing products.
Events At The Farm
We currently host events at the farm including goat yoga on Sundays and beginning in 2021 we’ll be open on Friday night for pizza! Our on-site gazebos are available for rental.
